Feuer und Eis

Fire and Ice, directed by Ralph Bakshi', is one of those rare adult oriented animated movies that never really took off into mainstream popularity. The plot in this movie is also not one of it's strenghts, which is pretty indicative of animated movies from that time period, it serves it's purpose just fine as a good vs evil tale. But the story is not the main drive force behind what makes this movie works but the fluid animation, the mysterious (albeit somewhat bland) characters and the stunning matte painting backgrounds are what this movie truly delivers on. While not having the smoothest animation throughout, there are some scenes which are truly a sight to behold for a movie this old and the use of rotoscope was also an interesting feature (altough very noticable in the movie itself). Well worth the watch!

This animation has a very simple and straightforward good vs. evil plot and is all about action. What sets it apart from other animation is how well the human movements are animated. It was really beautiful seeing the fleeing woman running around on the screen from left to right and look around, her movements were done so well. Why don't they use this rotoscopic technique more these days? It's quite effective.

Fire and Ice, in it's prehistoric setting and scarcely dressed women, was clearly devoted to showing the beautiful damsel in distress in various sexy ways, her voluptuous body serving as pure eyecandy. Some may hate this and regard it as yet another moronic male sexual fantasy, others (including plenty of women) will adore it's esthetic quality. I for sure did not mind! Bakshi just loves animating lushious, voluptuous babes, as can also be seen in Cool World, and I don't think he has to apoligize since it's pretty much animation for adults. But I had also enjoyed this animation as a child and I never forgot it.

This one was just special, so different from the standard Disney or Anime fare, and for that reason alone well worth the watch since it's possibly Bakshi's finest. For those who like animations with lushious women: try Space Adventure Cobra as well.

I give Fire and Ice 8 out of 10.

This movie really is one of the best animated movies I have ever seen. Most unfortunately, very difficult to get. Even large local videostores can't get any copies here. The highly detailed images reminded me of Heavy Metal, which also is a great work.

This movie is a true "must have" and should be available on DVD...

Forget "Wizards", this is the best Ralph Bakshi ever has given! Using Frank Frazetta's characters and art, he created this beautiful and stunning epic that has more life and interest than any other movie he has done. Wheras "Wizards" just is confusing and way too cartoonish to be taken seriously, "Fire and Ice" never shows any humor or cartoonish elements. It is simply a straight foward and to-the-point action cartoon. It also is a bit deeper and interesting than most of the other "sword and sorcery" movies in the 80s. Definately recommended!!!!

Fire and Ice is Ralph Bakshi's animated vision of Frank Frazetta's fantasy world (who even assisted in the making of this feature). The story is your basic tale of good verse evil; a ruthless sorcerer and his mother are intent on taking over the world, using their power to spawn ice glaciers to achieve this goal. Their last resistance is Fire Keep, a city built around a volcano. Really, the story and characters are kept simple while the showcase of this movie is the animation and action. Bakshi uses a process known as rotoscoping in this film (not his first time though). Rotoscoping is when actors are shot in live action and then later drawn over and added into the backgrounds. Nowadays, you might call it a form of motion capture. Anyway, the effect is actually pretty cool, bringing a certain realism to the characters that is absent from traditional animation. Keeping this in mind, we now come to the action in this movie, of which there is plenty. The movie only takes breaks to set up the next scene of combat for our two warrior heroes. It's often rather brutal, involving swords, spears, axes, and arrows. Aside from taking on gangs of Subhumans (the evil foot soldiers), there are also a few mythical-type creatures to deal with. Fire and Ice is the third Bakshi production I've seen and at that, the best. While I think it could've been better, it's still a fairly fun and entertaining fantasy picture, and I believe that's all it's meant to be. The Limited Edition DVD from Blue Underground does the movie justice with a decent transfer (the video shows some age but the audio is fine) and a few featurettes. There's also a sufficient commentary with Lance Laspina and Bakshi, who comes off as a bit of a jerk. Finally, the set includes Laspina's documentary, Frazetta: Painting with Fire.

By the way, for those in the know, John would love Princess Teegra, a voluptuous, scantly-clad lady right out of one of Frazetta's pictures!